‘Member Carmelo? ‘Member how he can score efficiently? Yeah, I ‘member!

The Knicks finally returned home after their long west coast trip to face the Indiana Pacers at Madison Square Garden. After falling behind in the third quarter, the Knicks stormed back and took the lead back in the fourth quarter to win the game 118-111. Carmelo Anthony snapped out of his shooting slump to lead the Knicks with 35 points on 13-25 shooting, which was the first time he shot over 50% in what feels like forever. I’ve been incredibly critical of Carmelo the past few weeks, but he showed his elite offensive game tonight. The returning Derrick Rose had 24 points and 6 assists, and Kristaps Porzingis 21 points and 8 rebounds. The big three put on a show for the home crowd and brought the Knicks all the way back. Thad Young and Myles Turner led the Pacers with 21 points each, and Paul George had 16 points.

So the Knicks took on the juggernaut that is the Golden State Warriors tonight in Oakland on the fourth game of a five game western swing, and came up short, 103-90. Considering the firepower that the Warriors possess with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, and Draymond Green, a thirteen point loss feels ok, especially with Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose watching in street clothes. The unlikely leader in scoring tonight was former Warrior Justin Holiday, who finished the game with 15 points. Ron Baker scored 13 off the bench on 6-7 shooting, and Brandon Jennings, who started for Rose, had 10 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists.

The Knicks were riding high on a four game road winning streak coming into Phoenix tonight, but couldn’t get the job done against the Suns and lost 113-111. New York spoiled an incredible game from Kristaps Porzingis, who finished this one with 34 points, 8 rebounds and 4 three pointers. Kyle O’Quinn also had an excellent game off the bench, scoring a season high 22 points while pulling down 14 rebounds, a truly remarkable game for KO. Even though these guys were carrying the Knicks, Carmelo Anthony had his second straight bad shooting night, as he finished 3-15 for 13 points. Derrick Rose left the game after the first quarter as his back acted up again. Former Knick Tyson Chandler had a game that was a throwback to his New York days with 13 points and 23 rebounds. Eric Bledsoe had 31 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists for Phoenix.

On the second night of a back to back, The Knicks got their tails kicked by the Cleveland Cavaliers, 126-94. The Cavs steamrolled the Knicks right out of the gate, as they hit 23 three pointers to lead them to a 32 point win. The big three of Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and of course LeBron James, combined for 74 points, with Irving leading the way with 28 points. Brandon Jennings, who filled in for the injured Derrick Rose, led the Knicks with 16 points. Carmelo Anthony had only 8 points on 9 shot attempts, and Kristaps Porzingis finished with 12 points.

The Knicks took their talents to South Beach to take on the injury riddled Miami Heat, where they beat the Heat at the American Airlines Center, 114-103. After a sluggish first half that saw the Knicks trailing by 1, they came out of the locker room ready to take care of business against Miami. Carmelo Anthony finished this one with a game high 35 points, and he absolutely caught fire in the third quarter. Kristaps Porzingis had his third straight poor shooting game, but had 14 points and 12 boards. Joakim Noah had a double-double, and Kyle O’Quinn continued to impress with 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists. Derrick Rose had to leave the game early due to back spasms, which could be an issue, since the Knicks play again tomorrow night. Hassan Whiteside finished the game with 23 points and 14 rebounds, and Goran Dragic paced the Heat with 29 points.

The Knicks won an overtime thriller at the Garden on Friday night in the first leg of a home and home with the Charlotte Hornets, 113-111. Carmelo Anthony iced the game with a turnaround jumper with 3.1 seconds to go, and had an impressive stat line to say the least. 35 points, a season high 14 rebounds, and 5 assists for the Knicks star forward. Kristaps Porzingis, who was in foul trouble for most of the game, ended up with 16 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 impressive blocks. Derrick Rose 16 points and 5 assists, and blocked Kemba Walker in the final seconds of overtime for the win. Walker had 17 points and 3 assists, and Nicolas Batum led the team with 18 points.

Takeaways from this game:

Interior Defense:

Even though there are still a lot easy baskets in the lane, the interior defense in the second half was much improved. The highlight plays were obvious, with KP and Melo coming up with impressive blocked shots, as well as Rose with the game clincher. Blocked shots could be a strength for this team, with good shot blockers like KP, Joakim Noah, and Kyle O’Quinn all good-to-great interior defenders. The blocks lead to easy opportunities in transition and mismatches on the other end.

Clutch Gene:

What I feel is the biggest takeaway from this game is that the Knicks can go a number of different ways at the end of close games. The Knicks have the big three of Anthony, Porzingis, and Rose, who can all step up and take the final shot of a game. Rose and Anthony took turns in the fourth quarter and overtime, and KP hit a huge three pointer with about 40 seconds to go in OT. Iso-Melo may have ended this one, but it’s not the only option like it has been in the past. A refreshing change.

Joakim Noah:

It’s beginning to be a problem that the Knicks spent all this money on a center who doesn’t play in the fourth quarter or overtime. 72 million dollars for 18 minutes? And to not even do much in those 18 minutes? 6 points and 8 rebounds are good numbers if you’re a role player, not if you’re expected to produce at a near max contract level like Noah is. This is a problem that is only going to get worse. Guys like KO and Willy Hernangomez are out-producing Noah on both ends, and they make far less money. The Knicks just need more from him, plain and simple.

The Knicks have to quickly regroup after this emotional come from behind win at MSG, because they play the same team in Charlotte tomorrow night. They look to get their fourth win in a row, and start to accumulate some wins on the road. Home court has been protected, and it’s time to conquer some other arenas. 8-7.

Like this:

The New York Knicks moved heaven and earth to trade for Carmelo Anthony from the Denver Nuggets. They did the same when they convinced him to sign a long-term contract in 2014, and it worked. For the most part he’s been a spectacular player for the Knicks. However, the 32-year-old wants to win, and he wants it now. The Knicks, although improving, aren’t there yet. In fact they won’t get there before Carmelo’s skills have largely decreased. For that reason, it’s a win-win to trade the All-Star now. Trade him for players, picks and cap room, and he’ll have a shot at his coveted ring, and the Knicks can improve with an arsenal of tools to help them in doing so. One option is a trade for Kevin Love.

Carmelo’s abilities will decrease rapidly as he continues in to his thirties, yet teams would still trade their arm and a leg to get him. The Knicks can call all the shots here, and indeed they should.

Carmelo wants to win, but seems to have accepted the fact that he might remain in New York.

Phil Jackson insisted “In our meeting at the end of the season, Carmelo said, ‘Really, it’s not that bad. I think we have the best frontline guys in the game in the Eastern Conference in Robin [Lopez], myself and Kristaps [Porzingis],’”.

Will he stay, however?

Jackson explained “I have to agree with him: Yes, those are three real potent figures, but we still have guard roles to have to play. So we’ve got some positions to fill, but not a lot. Not that many.”

However, every team in the NBA would offer a crazy package to get him, and Jackson is a smart man. He must realize this is the smart thing to do.

One option is to trade him to the Cleveland Cavaliers. They’d be willing to off-load Love. Although he’s not on Carmelo’s level, he’s younger, and would provide an excellent cornerstone to rebuild the franchise upon.

Should the Knicks keep Carmelo, they must target Kevin Durant, DeMar DeRozan or any other all-star help to ensure Carmelo can win now. It won’t be easy. Any of these additions would help the Knicks change their Betway.com’s odds. Can they win a championship for Carmelo?

However, if they want the easier, long-term approach that Jackson has previously spoken of, then trading him makes sense. He deserves a chance to win it all, at least, and with his value to decrease, the Knicks won’t want to lose him for little in a few years time.

By cashing in now they can get anything they have their eyes on. A few years later, after still- likely- failing to win, they might lose Anthony for next to nothing.

Like this:

Why this team is complete and utter garbage, and is worse than it should be

Nobody really expected much out of the New York Knicks this season. Why would they? The team tanked its way to 17 wins last season in a bid to rival the Washington Generals and couldn’t even do that right. What was supposed to be an awful season en route to having the best chance at getting the #1 pick turned into a terrible season inexplicably improved by meaningless wins at the end that dropped us to the #4 slot.

All’s well that ends well, though. With the drafting of future GOAT Kristaps Porzingis, and the addition of actual NBA-caliber players like Robin Lopez and Aaron Afflalo plus varsity team-caliber players like Derrick Williams and Kyle O’quinn, the Knicks looked poised to be fighting for a .400 record(hurray!).

The Knicks got out to a solid record considering their lack of talent, coaching, and experience together, flirting ever so teasingly with .500 several different times. When the team is clicking, they’ve played tough against the best in the league(without Melo even. Sign of something?), but the reality of the season has been that the Knicks have beaten a few solid teams and have usually lost to anyone who is actually good(and plenty who aren’t).

Despite some improvements, the Knicks still suck. But why? Why is it that fringe, formerly-unemployed NBA dreck feast against us night in and night out? Why do teams come to MSG expecting to get an easy win? Why is it that basic in-game adjustments from the other side kill us and there’s nothing we can do about it?

While talent, coaching, and lack of a good South American player(everyone knows that you need to have at least 1) have something to do with it, that doesn’t explain it all, and firing Fisher isn’t going to change much.

The Knicks suck because it’s 2016 and not 2006. Better yet, they suck because it’s 2016 and not 1996. In a league that relies on versatility, controlled pace, spacing, and penetration, the Knicks are posting and joking, plodding and waddling, switching and bitching their way to the bottom of the Eastern Conference. Let’s tear into it a little bit more…

Outdated strategy

The Knicks own version of the Bermuda Triangle does its best to swallow the talent of our best players. Modern analytics and technology be damned.

The NBA that your parents grew up watching was a slower, choppier, more physical game played around the rim from the inside out. It was a big man’s league. The rules and spirit of the game at the time made it a hell of alot easier to play from the block. Perimeter-oriented teams were rare. That’s not the case anymore. The Modern NBA is dominated by free flowing, quasi-positionless, versatile teams that attack from the perimeter, and make you pick your poison. You either let the wings take it to the rim, or you give up an open 3 ball. The Knicks are on pace for closer to the 2006 average in 3’s than they are the 2015.

The Knicks run the triangle. And in defense of this system, it doesn’t matter if we were running the square, the circle or the trapezoid either, the talent on this team just doesn’t live up to a top-tier squad. Still, while nearly all great teams in the league initiate their offense via penetration from wings, ours starts with the slowest player catching the ball 17 feet from the basket. The triangle maximizes mid-range jump shot opportunities and often puts the ball in the hands of the one guy on the court whose job is physical defense and rebounding(Lopez). Take these stats to heart:

The Knicks take the 5th most 2 point field goals in the league

The Knicks rank 27th in 2 point %………

The Knicks take the 23rd most 3’s, and rank 22nd in 3 point fg%

The Knicks are 22nd in assists

The Knicks are 25th in pace

So the Knicks run an offensive system geared at getting shots that they can’t make. Is there anything more Knicks than that? To top it off, they can’t balance it out with 3’s or free throws(even though the Knicks have the highest ft% in the league, they are only average at getting there). What makes it worse is that they iso the crap out of the ball, ranking 22nd in the league in assists and on pace for about the league average in the mid 00’s. Playing at the 5th slowest pace isn’t helping either. Not when the talent doesn’t match. Great teams like the 90’s Bulls, and recent Lakers and Celtics championship teams played slowly, but they had the talent to match. New York is playing Robin Lopez and Derrick Williams.

Fit

One thing that the Knicks can say about the team this year is that they actually have NBA-caliber players. Melo, Porzingis, Lopez, Afflalo, Thomas, and Galloway, and maybe Derrick Williams and Jose Calderon all belong in the league in some capacity, even if just as back ups in some cases.

The problem is that they are more of a hodgepodge than a cohesive unit. The leftovers of a swing and a miss in free agency. The best teams in the league field units that are not only talented, but that fit like gloves. They are mixes of shooters, defenders, penetrators, finishers, and post threats. To see how the Knicks are the opposite of that, let’s look at the starting lineup:

Calderon– Jose is the worst Spanish thing since the Spanish Flu. Not only is he inept defensively, he can’t do anything offensively aside from shoot. To make it worse, he can’t beat his man to get his shot off. So he is only a spot up shooter at this point, but the Knicks are playing him major minutes.

Afflalo- AA is off and on like a high school couple, and can’t play defense like he could in his day. He’s a net negative on D in terms of +/- and is barely posting in the positive for defensive win shares. The real issue is, though, that he doesn’t bring versatility to our attack. AA makes his living either posting up or shooting from mid range. And what’s worse is that the majority of those 2 point field goals are not assisted. That means he is someone who we iso from mid range or on the block. Sounds exactly like someone else in the starting lineup…..

Melo– Melo is still a star player, but something just isn’t right with him this season. The biggest issue is how he is being used. Melo is 13th in usage % at 29.5%, and has decreased his % of shots around the rim. He ranks second in isolation plays, and those plays produce less than 1 point per possession. He also has an assist % nearly identical to our point guard. It’s great to see Melo moving the ball, but should our star scorer really be our primary playmaker, especially when he is over 30? The players surrounding Melo don’t make up for his shortcomings, and don’t emphasize his strengths. There is no elite wing defender, no elite gunner or slasher to punish doubles, and no playmaker to make his life easier. He is at his best when finishing possessions created by a point guard or bullying smaller defenders in the post. Not isoing, turning and fading, or creating off the dribble.

Porzingis– the second coming is still in his infancy, but it’s clear that he has the skills to be dominant in the modern NBA. The problem is that the system isn’t emphasizing his strengths, either. The slower the team plays, the harder it is for Porzingis to use his natural advantages. How many impressive alley-oops and putbacks have we seen from him? How many times has he beaten slower bigs in transition, and how many times have we seen this Latvian beast trail for a wide open 3? Yet, he posts up(15% of possessions) more than he plays as the roll man(13.5%) despite being wildly more efficient at the latter and in the bottom third of the league at the former. His most efficient offensive possessions are when he cuts to the rim, yet he does that less than pretty much everything else. Partly a spacing issue, and partly a system issue. Also, when he does get doubled in the post, spacing issues make him more turnover prone and there isn’t enough shooting to punish double teams.

Lopez– Robin plays gritty, tough, hard nosed basketball. Exactly the kind of guy that Phil would have loved back in the old NBA. The problem is that the game has changed. Lopez is putting up great numbers close to the basket defensively (opponents are shooting 12% worse against him around the rim), but he is fairly one-dimensional. He struggles to keep up with quicker bigs, and doesn’t offer much versatility in the form of switching. On offense, he struggles to contribute much outside of post up hooks. So instead of having a mobile big that creates space, finishes off of cuts to the rim, and plays a modern style, the Knicks play a slow bruiser that muddies up the middle and takes away valuable space for the team’s two best offensive players.

What this boils down to is that the Knicks play players who don’t compliment each other’s strengths. If a player isn’t doing exactly what he is good at, then he can’t really contribute much else while on the floor.

Versatility

The modern NBA is full of teams who play positionless basketball, especially on the defensive end. The Warriors, Spurs, Thunder, and to a lesser extent the Cavaliers have versatile personnel capable of at least keeping you honest on offense, and capable of defending multiple positions on defense or vice versa. The Knicks, on the other hand, attempt to keep the score low by playing as slow as possible, and not actually trying to stop their opponents from scoring. Players like Calderon, Afflalo, Williams, and Seraphin struggle on defense and aren’t anything special offensively. Players like Lopez and Galloway bring it defensively every night, but aren’t versatile offensively.

Sorry, Carmelo. We want you out there for your defense. Don’t worry, we’ve got Sasha to pick up the slack on O.

It’s sad to think that Carmelo Anthony might be the best two-way player on the team, and he is the guy we want saving his energy for offense. Lance Thomas, at 6-8, 235 should be that guy, but his defense isn’t as good as has been heralded, and he only scores 8.5 per game.

Having players that can’t play both sides of the ball in a versatile manner, either by being able to guard multiple positions and hit the long ball or by being talented offensively and at least passable defensively means that this team is not only predictable night in and night out, but is also incapable of adjusting. While teams of bygone eras past had rigid position definitions and specialists that filled pre-determined roles, modern NBA teams thrive on fluidity and versatility. Compare the starting lineups of the 2006 NBA finals between the Heat and Mavericks to the 2015 NBA finals between the Cavaliers and Warriors to see exactly what I am talking about. The Knicks just haven’t gotten the memo.

In an NBA where the best teams play in space while maximizing 3’s, free throws, and layups, the Knicks take long, inefficient 2’s. In an NBA where the best teams push the pace to make it easier on offense for their best players, the Knicks slow it down and pound the ball in, assuring everyone gets hurt and tired. In an NBA where the best teams play units that maximize each other’s strength and hide weaknesses, the Knicks either play redundant players and specialists, or misuse the talent that they do have. In an NBA where the best teams play versatile players capable of wearing multiple hats on either end, the Knicks play Jose Calderon and Robin Lopez. This team would have probably kicked some serious ass in 2006. Too bad that was ten years ago. The good news is that this squad is sure to provide plenty of fodder for the NewYorkKnicks Podcast, so stay tuned!